About Texas-Explorer.com

Hello, my name is Ron Curtis and I am the owner and webmaster of Texas-Explorer.com. Let me begin telling you about Texas-Explorer.com by saying something first about TexasExplorer.com - without the dash (hyphen).

Texas-Explorer.com is in no way related to TexasExplorer.com, though we share similar names.

When I began forming what is now Texas-Explorer.com, I was so anxious to create a website about Texas travel and tourism, with an emphasis on outdoor adventures such as camping, backpacking and hiking, because I am Texan and I love travelling Texas and I love the outdoors and adventure.

Then, one of the biggest hurdles to face an aspiring webmaster and internet marketer is to come up with a good domain name around which to build your site and fill it with your ideas. You see, domain names are very difficult to find these days because nearly every combination of words you think of are already taken.

For me, it's easier to just use a domain name generation tool. With a tool like this, you give it one or more keywords related to your website idea. My keywords all had to do with Texas travel and outdoor activities. When you find what looks like a workable domain name using one of these tools, it is in your best interest to order it right away before it is taken by someone else. Also, I suspect these tools can alert the possible domain squatters that lurk behind some of them that you've found a good domain, which they will then seize for themselves, then turn around and offer it for sale at way above the customary $15 annual registration fee charged when you register a domain. So, when Texas-Explorer.com came up available, I jumped on it.

I was able to set to work on creating the site within minutes of securing the domain and I worked for three days straight getting the site designed and populated with content. I was elated that I finally had the Texas site I'd always wanted to create. But, during my rush to get the site up, I broke one of the many cardinal rules of webmastering simply because I was in a hurry and didn't do my research. So, on maybe the fourth day of production on Texas-Explorer.com, I was doing some standard operating research when I discovered that I wasn't the first Texas Explorer website. I was crushed.

Just because there was a TexasExplorer.com already present on the internet doesn't necessarily mean that I can't have my Texas-Explorer.com. I am legally entitled to have and operate the Texas-Explorer.com domain name and website. But, finding that there was another site kinda knocked the shine off of what I was doing.

Though what I was doing ended up being similar to what TexasExplorer.com has done, I've decided that our sites are different enough that I will continue developing my Texas-Explorer.com. Their site is touted as a Texas travel magazine and features brilliant photography of Texas locales and area guides to go with the images. My site is a travel, tourism and outdoor guide to Texas with no photographic production at all. Considering our names, it's just a given that our sites would be similar because the domain names conjure up images of exploring Texas.

I do still wish, though, that I hadn't been so quick to jump on the first domain name that made sense. Perhaps if I had worked a little harder and did some basic research, what I've created might not leave me with a dull nagging doubt in the back of my brain as to whether or not it is right for me to continue with Texas-Explorer.com.

I will say this about TexasExplorer.com. Owner George Hosek has created one heckuva nice photographic guide to Texas and I highly recommend that you visit his site at TexasExplorer.com. That's the least I can do, after all. He was first out of the gate with a Texas Explorer website and I did succumb to my own stupidity by leaping before I looked. I only hope that I have done a good enough job that George won't be too stressed about the name association.

As for my Texas-Explorer.com, I will continue to develop it with a constant eye on making it as unique - and different than TexasExplorer.com - as possible. And maybe one day, I'll get up the nerve to call George Hosek to get a sense of how he feels about all of this. George, if you're reading, gimme a call!